Don't let someone else write it

IT'S YOUR STORY

shouldn’t be confined to the field of play

AN ATHLETE'S STORY

1 We Are BrandForward

2 Overview

Everyone Has More Than One Passion,

More than one mark to make. The opportunity to create a legacy that lives on well after the last whistle blows. That’s why we created BrandForward – to help athletes tap into the power of their platform.

3 The BFWD™ Approach

Always Individual

We believe it’s the differences that make all of the difference, so we focus on not only what drives the player, but also what drives the person.

Always Personal

There is nothing cookie-cutter about our approach to brand building - it is always one individual at a time.

4 Process

The BFWD™ Approach

Personalized approach to defining an athlete’s purpose and narrative.

Transforming an athlete’s brand into a memorable icon.

Platforms that connect consumers directly to an athlete’s brand.

Training to help athletes represent their brand publicly with confidence.

5 About Us

We Love Building Powerful Brands

We’ve done it for a long time and now we’re putting our skills to work for current and retired professional athletes.

Facebook Head of Supplier Diversity. Working at the intersection of the marketplace and social impact.

9 Partners

Partners

News & POV

01

May2018

LinkedIn: Virtual Business Card

Considered a connecter of professionals throughout time, the business card has always served as an open invitation to continue the conversation. But what do you do when you are an athlete and you don’t have a business card? Enter LinkedIn. LinkedIn provides the opportunity to make those connections stick and can be so much more than just a place to share your experience and expertise. What makes the platform powerful is the ability to interact directly with people already interested in making professional connections, such as potential employers and sponsors, customers and even members of the media. But to make that virtual business card work hard for you, first you need to Read more

One of the most important building blocks of personal brand is learning how to network effectively, but like public speaking, networking is one of the things many athletes least like to do. The term “networking” often gets a bad rap – conjuring up images of insincere interactions and sales propositions mixed in with a whole bunch of selfie requests – but when done right, networking can help athletes create meaningful connections that support their brand’s growth. “It’s all about setting goals for your networking and focusing on turning interactions into relationships,” said our managing director and co-founder of BFWD, Patty Hubbard. “When you have relationships built on shared values, you Read more

Having the opportunity to hear an Olympic medalist share his or her journey to a gold medal can be awe-inspiring. But what about the opportunity to hear from four Gold Medalists, and those four just happen to be global icons Jennifer Azzi, Brandi Chastain, Michael Johnson and Kristi Yamaguchi? That is wisdom that just can’t be missed. The student-athletes of the University of San Francisco were recently treated to such a master class when these four Olympians came together to share the lessons they learned on their way to victory. Between them, Azzi, Chastain, Johnson and Yamaguchi have eight Olympic gold medals, 14 world championship titles and hundreds of individual career wins across very different Read more

What American Ninja Warrior Can Teach Everyone About Personal Branding. The contestants on American Ninja Warrior come from all walks of life, but what the most successful have in common is more than just dogged preparation and a desire to challenge their very limits; they are also masters of their personal brand. Based on the popular Japanese show Sasuke (now going into its 34th season), the American version is in its ninth season domestically, with no signs of slowing down. It has consistently been a top-ten show of the summer, reaching a peak on September 11 during the finals as the top-rated and most-watched show. The show even has such Read more

Written by Patrick Hanlon. Recognized as the world’s leading brand evolutionary, Hanlon is CEO and founder of THINKTOPIA®, a global brand and strategic innovation practice for Fortune 100 clients. His book Primal Branding: Create Zealots For Your Brand, Your Company And Your Future is listed as one of the Top 10 books in marketing and branding. Hanlon is a BFWD Advisor. The following is reposted from Hanlon’s LinkedIn Pulse page. You can follow Hanlon here. ———————————————————————————– Do you have friends? Do you have seven friends? Let’s just say that you do. Then you’re on your way to becoming a Brand. Of course, this is subjective, arbitrary and based on Facebook stats which suggest Read more

by Eric Evenson, BFWD Contributor When the clock hits 0:00 on the college basketball season, sports fans everywhere know it is tradition to conclude the year with “One Shining Moment.” And just as the playing of “One Shining Moment” signifies the summit of college basketball, so does NBA Draft Night signify the beginning of next chapter for declared athletes. These two hallmark moments give prospects a platform to share their personal stories with all eyes on their talents. But what about the moments between the moments? No longer under the umbrella of the the NCAA, yet still without a team and city to call home, these future pros had the Read more

For hundreds of millions of people watching in person, online or on television, the Super Bowl is an irresistible spectacle and celebration of sport and entertainment. For the San Francisco Bay Area and the folks behind the production of Super Bowl 50, the Super Bowl was about more than the game; it was the opportunity to create a lasting, positive legacy for the region’s residents and a model for major sporting events around the world. In her new book on sale May 18 – Big Game, Bigger Impact: How the Bay Area Redefined the Super Bowl Experience and the Lessons that Can Apply to Any Business – our co-founder Stephanie Read more

Today is a new chapter in our own personal stories. Over the past 20 years, we’ve helped companies and brands develop strong relationships with their customers, employees and communities. We have loved building powerful, connective brands and experiences, so we thought: what if we took that expertise and worked to help people discover their own voice? A spark was ignited. Having worked long in the sports industry and being former college athletes ourselves, we knew exactly where we wanted to focus our efforts: on helping current and retired professional athletes develop their personal brands. We believe an athlete’s story isn’t confined to the field of play. Everyone has more than Read more